An artificial intelligence (AI) avatar is running for a U.K. Parliamentary seat.
AI Steve is running to represent Brighton Pavilion. The AI host, Steve Endacott, expressed his motivation for the campaign strategy in a LinkedIn post.
“Never one to lack ambition, I am setting up my own party after growing disillusioned with how much the others are out of contact with the UK population, and I will try to use technology to connect directly with the views of my constituents,” Endacott wrote.
The goal of the AI Steve is to develop a politician who is available to talk with constituents at any time.
According to AI Steve’s website, a chat option is available 24/7 and can carry up to 10,000 conversations at once.
The website notes that policies meeting a 50% threshold will be passed by the AI, and
“validators will control all AI-STEVES parliamentary votes—the ultimate form of democracy.”
Validators give policies a score between 1 to 10.
The Electoral Commission said that Endacott would be the elected candidate, not “any AI-generated application” representing him.
In a statement to NBC News, Endacott declared that the intention behind AI Steve is engage “more humans” in politics.
“It’s not AI taking over the world. It’s AI being used as a technical way of connecting to our constituents and reinventing democracy by saying, ‘You don’t just vote for somebody every four years; you actually control the vote on an ongoing basis,’” he said. “Which is very, very radical in the U.K. Probably even more radical in America.”
